Summer 2012

This is the annual summer beak for the girls.  This was their first time traveling alone.  After their flight was delayed out of Houston they had a lay-over in Chicago they ended up arriving in Rochester around 4pm.  Not seeing them very frequently I am always surprised to see how much they have grown.  And they were surprised to see how big Jackson had gotten.  The girls wanted to play with him and hold him continuously!!  Anyhow, after we had a quick visit in the airport then were off to Mark and Cheryl's for dinner.  While Cheryl was preparing dinner we fed the fish in the lake and went 4-wheeling.  They each had a chance to drive in around the property, they had a blast.  When they were inside they wanted to show off their musical talents by playing the piano.  Dinner was great as usual we had hamburgers, salad, and bow-tie pasta and a pop-icicle to end the meal.  After dinner we played cards.  It was sure good seeing the girls again! :)

Day 2
The kids had a laundry list of things to choose from and they wanted to go to the movies of all things!  It had been several months since I had gone so it was a nice treat.  Beforehand we spent about $10 in tokens for the arcade.  It's doesn't last very long.  Then or coarse we had to get popcorn.  It ended up costing a little bit but I am glad we got to spend time together.  Shhh, don't tell but I did rest my eyes for a bit during the movie.  We headed home afterwords and made dinner and just watch some Anime til bedtime 

Day 3
We spent the morning at my friend Mike's place.  They have an in-ground pool and trampoline and we had the whole place to ourselves.  Water temp was around 80 so near perfect!  Natalie was a little fish.  She enjoyed playing Marco-Polo with her eyes open so we had to be creative.  She dove off of the diving board.  Nicole spent time reading her book she is really into Anime (Chinese cartoons).  She draws characters and fantasy animals, she is really into it!  She is such a talented young woman.  After about an hour of swimming and reading we all met at the trampoline for a jump-a-thon.  We had a blast!  When we got back home we all hopped in the canoe and attempted to fish.  After we came up empty-handed we decided to catch frogs.  We must have caught a dozen.  I never saw them laugh so hard before.  I had to get some pics of coarse.

Day 4
We drove to Morrisville, NY that morning.  We looked at several state parks and decided that area looked the best.  Originally, we were planning on camping in a tent but I was out-voted by the girls and we stayed in a hotel close by.  We eventually made it to the state park but Nicole saw a few things she wanted to do before-hand.  Nicole has always been amazed by markers in cemetery's, dates, etc... so we spent about an hour doing that.  Then they wanted Mc Donalds so Nicole had a Big Mac w/ cheese and suicide to drink.  Natalie had a happy meal w/ sprite.  I drove down to Price Chopper (grocery store) and got some fruits and veggies, yogurt and snacks for the day.  We then drove to the state park and hiked for a little bit.  We met a guy who told us a little about the history of the area we were hiking in.  That was pretty interesting.  Since it was in the 90's, we ended the day in a spring-fed swimming hole near-by.  Lots of family's there who also had the same idea.  We went back to the hotel and relaxed in front of a movie.

Day 5
Today we went into Colgate because the front desk attendee had mentioned there was bowling at the University.  It ended up being closed for the summer so we went to the lake instead.  Another hot day so we spent some time in the hotel keeping cool.  Had the not so wonderful breakfast that they offer.  Then off to do stuff! We went to the university and walked around campus.  It wasn't too long before they were tired and we decided to drive home.  When we got home we got a call from Joe to come over and have dinner.  We had hamburgers and hotdogs.  Nicole hung out with their son Sean and his friend for a little bit.  We took Natalie to her friend Caroline's house for a sleep-over.  We just spend the evening there and enjoyed the company.

Day 6
We picked up Nicole's friend Maribel around 10am and headed to Roseland Water-park.  The kids absolutely loved it there.  I had taken them the summer before.  Some of their favorite places to go in the water-park are wave-pool, and water-slides.  Jackson, Natalie, and i hung out and the lazy river and kiddie-pool area.  I was a sunny day but the temps were in the low 80's.  Jackson really enjoyed splashing around and pointing to different places in the kiddie area he wanted to go.  Natalie was kind enough to steer us on our raft through the lazy river.  It was nice and relaxing...  Around noon-time we took a break and had lunch in the car.  After lunch we headed back in for more fun!   Nicole spend the evening and overnight with her best friend Mira.  Nat me and Jackson had dinner at friends!  What a great day!

Day at the Beach!

The girls loved the beach soo much we decided to make a day of it.

Now Corpus Christi Beach isn't like the clear water you find in Florida or even South Padre Island, Texas, it's more of a muddy brown, but that's ok the girls found all sorts of cool things in the water.  Broken Sand Dollars, shells, and self-digging clams!  They would gather a handful of clams and just watch them dig into the sand.  They wanted to bring them back to the hotel with us. :)

Now for as long as I can remember the girls love the water.  They learned to swim in Columbia, SC, then we had a neighborhood swimming pool in Houston, and finally here, twice a week for family swim at Avon Middle School.  Here's some pics of the girls in the water.

After a bit of swimming and playing we ventured down the beach.  We saw a lot of people walking their dogs and of coarse they had to stop and pet each one!!  What can I say, they're animal lovers!  A little further down they wanted to try their hand at fishing...

just kidding!!!  A local fisherman had caught these and the girls wanted to hold them.  Nicole was a bit reluctant but Natalie felt right at home.  I love to see them smile!!  After their fishy experience we headed to sand...and lots of it!!

The next few pictures are of the girls buried in sand.  They like being covered all the way up. 

Here's some others pics of them in sand from a few years before in Clearwater Beach...

This was Nicole idea to make it look like a tombstone!  Silly girl! 

After a long day at the beach we went back to the hotel and relaxed until dinner.  They were pretty tired.  After we rested for a few hours we all went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Rockport, TX.  After dinner we brought left-overs back to the hotel and sat and watched Spongebob. 

USS Lexington

(Tory writing)(pics by Dan) On Tuesday we visited the USS Lexington, a retired Navy boat that has been made into a museum.

There was a lot to see and a lot of history to read about. The boat was used for 40-something years before it was retired...said to be the longest life of a navy boat. The size of the boat alone was a novelty! There were several lower decks for offices, dining, medical area, and machine rooms. The upper deck was a landing pad for plans and also carried a few hundred cars. And, finally way up at the top, was where the Captain sat. The girls liked walking through this part because they could steer the boat and sit in the Captain's chair.

Following the USS Lex, we took a trip to the beach. Nicole's favorite thing was counting the jellyfish...She counted over 70 that day. The ocean water was very nice. I thought it was going to be a lot colder, considering the time of year, and forgetting how far south we actually were. It was fun! The sun sure is exhausting though. By dinner time I was ready for bed. But, we finished the night off with several Spongebob episodes in our hotel room.
OH, and we forgot to mention before that we celebrated Nicole's 12th Birthday when we were down there. Her real Birthday is March 27th. We brought each of the girls a webkins gift.

Nicole had asked for a dragon, which we were very fortunate to find (I was so excited when we picked those up). And we gave Nat a pink poodle webkins. dan always likes to give each of the girls a gift on Birthdays, so all the more fun picking out presents (seriously)! Thanks for reading! Still more to come...

Spring Break in Corpus Christi

Hello again everyone!!!

As many of you know we left last week to spend spring break with the girls down in Corpus Chrsiti, TX.  The last time I had seen the girls was Christmas-time 2010 which we have a blog for you revisit.  A little history, I used to live in Corpus Christi about 12 years ago and this is where Nicole was born.  Tory and I left last Saturday morning headed to Ft. Worth to pick the girls up.  We were also going to visit my father and mother in Arlington, TX.  It ended up being about a 25 hour drive to get there.

We arrived there Sunday afternoon and went visited my parents.  The girls weren't scheduled to be picked up until Monday morning.  It had been awhile since we had been down there but it was sure nice seeing everyone again!  Everyone was in good spirits and we stayed and visited for a few hours.  Dad enjoyed shoing off his Military and Fire-Fighter memorabilia.  This is the first time Tory had met my parents.  The visit ended with hugs and kisses goodbye!

Monday morning we dropped by and picked the girls up.  It was sooo nice seeing them, Nicole looked like she had grown a couple inches.  We gave them both big hugs and kisses!!  We still had another 7 hours of driving till we arrived in Corpus so we kept them entertained with books, games, and frequent stops.  We arrive a little after 3pm and checked into the hotel the temperature was around 70.  The girls couldn't wait to head to the beach and explore.